DUSHANBE, April 27, 2011, Asia-Plus — The number of officially registered drug dependent persons in Tajikistan has decreased from 7,398 on January 1, 2011 to 7,276, Alisher Tashripov, an official with the Drug Control Agency (DCA), announced at a news conference in Dushanbe on April 27.
According to him, these official figures from the Ministry of Health are based on the number of drug dependent persons that applied to the drug abuse centers for medical aid. Tashripov noted that it could not be ruled out that the real number of drug dependent persons in the country was much higher.
An inconsiderable increase has been observed in the number of drug dependent persons in the provinces, while in Dushanbe, the number of drug dependent persons has decreased by more than 200 people as compared with January-March 2010. “As of April 1 ,2011, 3,356 drug dependent persons were reported in Dushanbe,” the DCA official noted.
“Specialists attribute decrease in the number of drug dependent persons in the capital to rehabilitation of them, death of drug addicts and change of place of residence,” Tashripov added.
According to the Tajik counternarcotics agency, heroin users account for 80 percent of the overall number of the officially registered drug dependent persons in the country.
